The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts is ready to view.Global markets for coated steel continue to run at different speeds with regards to pricing at the start of the summer season in the northern hemisphere. In Asia, prices continue to rise although, as we note in our Asia analysis this month, much of this is merely cost inflation with steelmakers passing on higher substrate cos...Read More

China’s economy grew 3.2 percent in Q2 2020. The expansion was above expectations, but it does not have to sink gold.Last week, China reported that its economy grew 3.2 percent year-on-year in the second quarter of this year, following a 6.8 percent contraction in the previous quarter, as the chart below shows. Importantly, the actual growth rate beat the market expectations of a 2.5 percent...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.This month's key ferro-alloy forecast highlights:Numerous ore and alloy markets enjoyed upward pricing momentum in the first half 2020, with supply-side constraints supporting prices despite collapsing demand from steelmakers and other key end users. While supply side issues related to Covid-19 lockdowns have been resolved,...Read More

Last week, we wrote that gold miners flashed an“extremely overbought” signal, which they had only flashed once in the past –almost right at the 2016 top. The GoldMiners Bullish Percent Index recently moved to the highest levelthat it could reach – 100.The only other case when the index was at 100, wasin mid-2016. We marked this situation with a vertical dashedline. Did min...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.In previous reports, we noted that upside risks to our forecasts existed. These were based on Chinese steel production, and in turn alloy consumption, outperforming our expectations.Chinese crude steel production is rising each month in a year-on-year comparison, prompting our revised view that Chinese alloy consumption will...Read More

As the world's economic engine starts to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, the demand for certain key commodities are a good indicator of the rebound strength.The S&P GSCI Commodity Index (Chart 1) is a collection of24 commodities from all commodity sectors (energy products, industrial metals, agricultural products, livestock products and precious metals). Since 2011, the index has been in a...Read More

"Hope and fear look different on a chart"Recently in these pages, we noted that bull markets in stocks tend to end with "a subtly slowing ascent" rather than with a final "spike" higher, as many investors believe. Historical examples were provided.It was also pointed out that, by contrast, commodities do tend to end major uptrends with a price spike.The Wall Street classic book, Elliott Wave Princ...Read More

You may have heard that gold typically rallies seasonally from themiddle of the year. This trend is driven by jewelry demand, which increasesahead of the Christmas business, the Indian wedding season and the Chinese NewYear celebrations on the back of advance purchases by jewelers, which tend to putupward pressure on prices. But what about the seasonal trend in gold stocks? Since the earnings ofgo...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Heavy rains in China, which can negatively affect iron ore supplies and pig iron production, and bolster demand for scrap, continued in July 2020. Although this was more an upside risk to our bearish base case one month ago, Chinese scrap prices remained strong. The firm prices gained support from the rains and from a more g...Read More

Gold and silver markets advanced early thisweek, with silver leading the way.  OnThursday, the metals sold off a bit as the U.S. dollar gained.The major trend for the dollar, however, isdown. The Dollar Index has been grinding lower since mid March, when it put ina spike high.  Silver finally broke through $19 level with astrong close above it on Monday.  Therehasn’t yet been...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.This year has come with several unexpected events which increased the bullish case for iron ore prices, while the Chinese government's spending on infrastructure is likely to boost iron ore demand and add upside support to prices. But supply disruptions and a demand surge which caused price spikes are now easing. We do not e...Read More

It’s official now! On June 8, the Business Cycle Dating Committee of the National Bureau of Economic Research stated that economic activity in the United States had peaked in February 2020 (and in Q4 2019, when it comes to the peak in quarterly economic activity), marking the start of a recession. The peak also designates the end of the expansion that began in June 2009 and lasted 128 months...Read More

Summerdoldrums? Not for precious metals markets!Inearly July, gold and silver eachbroke out to fresh multi-year highs. The yellow metal is within strikingdistance of new all-time highs and the headline worthy figure of $2,000/oz.Thewhite metal, meanwhile, has a lot of catching up to do. And as it does, thegains in percentage terms could be explosive.Silver has already packed on 60% since its March...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' teamof analysts are ready to view.Chinese crude steel production outperformed our expectations with its recovery since the Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns. Crude steel output was up by 2.3% year-on-year in the first half of 2020 to 503 million tonnes, and we have revised upward what was initially a more bearish forecast for this year. We now estimate that product...Read More

Silver investmentdemand is exploding in recent months, skyrocketing higher inwildly-unprecedented fashion!  That has catapultedsilver sharply higher since mid-March’s COVID-19-lockdown stock panic.  Accelerating even in this usually-weak summerseason, the massive capital inflows deluging into silver show no signs ofabating.  This is very bullish for silver,yet most traders rem...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts are ready to view.Prolonged flooding in China could limit the use of construction steel and drag down demand for steel rebar in the short term, which in turn could damp the demand for iron ore. So far, it has been reported that steel mills in the affected regions have continued to operate as normal. The floods have, however, caused a few days...Read More

The number of cases of Covid-19 in the U.S. have been rallying very quickly in last weeks, giving way only to the gold prices, which have surpassed $1,800. It’s not easy to terminate the viruses, especially that they are not quite alive. Indeed, the pandemic of the coronavirus is still not over, as the chart below shows. The global number of daily confirmed Covid-19 cases has surpassed 220,0...Read More

The latest forecast from Fastmarkets' team of analysts is ready to view.As we enter the summer season across the northern hemisphere, almost half a year has passed since the Covid-19 pandemic began to seriously affect Europe and the United States.One would not really be able to tell that such a dramatic event had occurred by looking at stainless steel prices, however, because they are more or less...Read More

The next few weeks are certain to attract much attention to precious metals.  Hardly anyone can argue that Gold has not experienced an incredible upside price rally over the last 12+ months.  Recently, Gold closed above $1800 for the first time since 2011.  Our researchers believe the next target is $1935.  Keep reading to learn why we believe this is the next major price targe...Read More

The latest forecasts from Fastmarkets' team of analysts is ready to view.Stainless steel prices are relatively stable this month, showing little change since our previous tracker. Such stability masks growing issues for stainless steelmakers, however, who are increasingly unable to pass on rising costs to consumers and are, thus, facing cuts to their margins.In general, this is due to an excess of...Read More